Teardrops on Richie's Guitar
by Raven'sWinterRaine
Summary: A night alone with his guitar after being ditched for Daisy by his best friend. Again. What else is there for Richie to do but practice a little?


Richie plucked at the strings of his acoustic guitar, then glance at the blue electric one that was in the corner of his room. He sighed, then looked back at the one in his lap.

About six years ago Richie had had enough saved up money that he was able to buy a guitar. When he got to the store he was both happy and sad to find out that the store was having a 'Going Out of Business' sale. Happy, because he was actually able to buy two guitars, plus the speaker, some picks, and a buttload of extra strings, but sad because he was hoping to be able to visit the store more often.

Since that day Richie had practiced on first the acoustic one, to get the feel and pattern of playing a guitar down, before trying with the electric.

He'd researched a lot about how to play guitars, even paid for some simple one-on-one tutoring classes.

Richie had improved a lot ever since he first started when he was twelve.

Right now he was thinking about which song he should practice, and when he decided which song, on which guitar he needed.

And that was the reason he was sitting alone on his bed on a Saturday night.

He had originally planned to go see a movie with Virgil, but Daisy found out that Virgil was going to go see it, and wanted to see it with him.

Even though Virgil had told Richie that they were going together, he changed his plans and went with Daisy instead.

Safe to say that Richie felt a little sting at that.

So there he was, rejected, _de_jected, stressed, and trying to get into the right mind to pick a song and play it, if only to get his mind off of tonight, and maybe put in a little practice as well. He didn't want to get rusty, after all.

He strummed absentmindedly, running through a list of songs in his mind before discarding them.

Before he knew it, he found himself strumming a familiar tune. He stopped for a moment, thought about the song, then decided that this was the perfect song to practice.

Even though he doesn't have the best singing voice out there, the chords and the words were all that mattered to him.

Readjusting his position so that he was sitting in the middle of his bed with his trusty acoustic guitar, Richie gripped the pick, checked his finger positions, then started to play, and then after a few slow chords, sing:

"Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see; That I want and I'm needin' everything that we should be…"

Richie couldn't help but think of Virgil. It was always Virgil, and Richie knew that it was always going to _be_ Virgil.

"I'll bet she's beautiful, that girl he talks about…"

Richie's heart broke just a little bit more every time Virgil gushed about Daisy this, or Daisy that, or he was constantly pushed aside for her. It really hurt. What hurt the most was that Richie couldn't say anything about it.

"And she's got everything that I have to live without…"

_I'll never have Virgil the way that Daisy does,_ Richie thought absentmindedly, tears welling up in his bright blue eyes at that thought.

"Drew talks to me, I laugh 'cause it's so damn funny; That I can't even see anyone when he's with me," he sang, thinking of how his world pretty much resolved around Virgil.

"He says he's so in love, he's finally got it right; I wonder if he knows he's all I think about at night…" The tears started to fall around this verse. Virgil was so blind to the way that Richie felt about him. He didn't see how much it hurt Richie to watch Virgil go out with these other people, _girls_, and know that Virgil would never look at him the way that Richie does.

Whenever Richie was having a bad day, he'd call up his best friend and talk, sometimes for hours. That would always lighten up his spirits.

But now…it seemed that they were always down…

A tear trailed down his cheek and landed on the wooden instrument below.

"He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar; The only thing that keeps me wishin' on a wishin' star; He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do…"

He kept up the chords, and singing, all the while his thoughts were racing.

Sometimes it was good to be a super genius.

"Drew walks by me, can he tell that I can't breathe? And there he goes, so perfectly; The kind of flawless I wish I could be…"

Even before Virgil became Static, he just had this…charm about him. While Richie was always the pessimistic, awkward, blond, white friend.

At least in Richie's eyes that's what he was.

And after the Big Bang…Richie saw so much more maturity, humility, charisma, charm, and so many other things in Virgil from being Static.

Richie wasn't blind though, he knew about Virgil's flaws; but it was those flaws that made him love the darker teen all the more…

"She better hold him tight, give him all her love; Look in those beautiful eyes and know she's lucky 'cause…"

_Daisy better know how lucky she is_, Richie thought, more tears falling as the heartbreak grew worse.

"He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar; The only thing that keeps me wishin' on a wishin' star; He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do…"

Richie paused in his singing for the guitar solo, in which more thoughts and tears came up.

"So I drive home alone, as I turn out the light," he thought, _I'll always be alone, won't I?_

"I'll put his picture down and maybe get some sleep tonight…"

He felt the tears coursing down his face, but did nothing about them.

"Cause he's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar; The only one who's got enough of me to break my heart…"

_He breaks it every day and every night_…

"He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know _why_ I do; He's the time taken up, but there's never enough…"

There was never enough time to spend with Virgil in the blond's eyes.

"And he's all that I need to fall into…." Richie adjusted his position again with this verse, leaning back to that he was laying across his bed, feet dangling.

"Virg looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see…."

The last guitar strums faded away, leaving only quiet in the darkly lit room.

Richie didn't feel like moving after he was done singing and playing, but he shifted enough so that the guitar was sitting on the bed with him, instead of on him.

Richie swallowed hard as the tears continued to fall, only mildly irritated when they ran into his ears.

He knew that he would take his feelings to the grave with him. He had to. No matter what, Virgil could _not_ find out.

He'd rather cry himself to sleep at nights than ruin the best friendship he'd ever had with the best person he'd ever met.

Besides, what was a little heartbreak between friends?


End file.
